46 Records of the Indian Museum. [VoL. V, 
than in P. vepens. Among Indian specimens of P. fruticosa two 
varieties can be distinguished :— 
Var. Ahas the branches long and composed of many zocecia, 
while the zocecia themselves have a diameter at the 
broadest part of nearly half a millimetre. The 
ectocyst is tinted of a delicate brownish colour. 
Var. B (Allman’s Plumatella stricta), on the other hand, has 
much more slender zocecia (greatest diameter about 
0°35 mm.), and its branches are sparingly produced 
and short, consisting of not more than three or four 
zocecia each. ‘The ectocyst, except when stained by 
contact with rotting wood, is practically colourless. 
A third form, the P. corallovdes of Allman, occurs frequently 
in India but must be regarded merely as a phase directly due to en- 
vironment. When the zoarium of P. fruticosa becomes overgrown 
by a freshwater sponge, as is frequently the case, the zocecia are 
forced by the pressure of its growth to assume an upright direction 
and often reach a considerable length without branching, in order 
that their apertures may be on the surface of the sponge. Asa rule, 
however, they are not exactly parallel to one another, and they 
never assume a polygonal form in cross-section or become aggluti- 
nated together. Frequently, moreover, they give rise to branches 
on the surface of the sponge, even after reaching a considerable 
length. Zoaria may be found in which the proximal (7.c., the oldest) 
part is free and has the typical form of P. fruticosa, while the younger 
parts, being embedded in a sponge, have assumed the form of P. 
corallovdes. 
P. fruticosa is a common form in India, especially in Lower 
Bengal. I have examined specimens of var. A from the island of 
Bombay, from Igatpuri in the W. Ghats, from Lahore in the Punjab 
(Major J. Stephenson, I1.M.S.), and from Calcutta and other places 
in the Ganges delta. Form B I found growing in abundance 
in Shasthancottah lake in the plains of Travancore (some of my 
specimens from that locality being embedded in gelatinous masses 
formed by a colonial rotifer and having assumed to some extent 
the coralloides characters), and in a jungle stream at the base of the 
W. Ghats in the same State; I also obtained specimens at Igatpuri, 
and at Kawkareik in Lower Burma. Specimens collected in a 
pond at Darjiling (alt. 6,900 feet) by Mr. R. Kirkpatrick and now 
in the British Museum, probably also belong to form B of this species 
but are in too bad a condition of preservation to make a definite 
statement possible. 
Indian specimens of var. A agree well with a specimen from 
Germany sent me by Dr. Kraepelin labelled Plumatella princeps 
var. fruticosa, while examples of the corvallotdes phase from Calcutta 
and elsewhere in Bengal closely resemble a specimen of this phase 
from the neighbourhood of Edinburgh. 
In some of the Calcutta tanks P. fruticosa grows with great 
luxuriance. It is only found, so far as my experience goes, during 
